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His expression was guarded. He didn’t look upset exactly, but he definitely didn’t look pleased.
Zeke stifled a groan. What had he done in another life to deserve all of this meddling from people who were half his age?
“Mr. Callahan, can I have a word with you?” From his position on the ground, Thomas should have looked intimidated. At least, that was what most folks felt when they came up against Zeke.
But not Thomas. If anything, he seemed to have grown some confidence in the last twenty-four hours.
Zeke crossed his arms, then leaned over the saddle horn, his head tilted slightly to the side. “What can I do for you, son?”
There was a flicker—an irritation—in Thomas’s eyes that gave Zeke a small degree of pleasure. His eyes tightened, as did his jawline. But then he lifted his chin and his eyes narrowed. “I seem to recall a conversation with you where you mentioned it wasn’t your place to tell my mother about something you discovered about me.”
“And I didn’t.”
“Not in so many words, no. But you did tell her that I was keeping something from her.”
Zeke studied this young man before him. He couldn’t get a read on him. Had everything gone smoothly? Had Thomas ripped off the Band-aid and told his mother what he’d been holding back? There was still a chance it all worked out.
Or had it exploded, causing Agatha to be in more pain than she should have been? His heart burst with concern and an undeniable desire to turn right back down this path so he could find her and tell her that everything would be okay. He’d gone through his own issues with his children. They’d had their share of struggles, but in the end things had worked out.
“Well? Do you have anything to say for yourself?”
Zeke didn’t move. He continued watching Thomas, hoping he’d get at least some indication of how things had worked out with his mother. Then his eyes narrowed and he straightened. “You’d let your deception go on long enough. It was time for your mother to find out about—”
“That was up to me to decide,” Thomas cut in. “With all due respect, my personal relationship with my mother is none of your business. What I choose to tell her or not tell her is on me. And if we end up having an argument about it, that’s on me, too.”
“With all due respect, you have no idea what you’re talking about.” Zeke knew he shouldn’t have said it the second the words escaped his throat. But once they were out, there was no taking them back. “You’re young. You don’t have the same kind of understanding about the world as I do. So let me give you a free lesson on how your relationship with your mother should be.”
“Excuse me—”
Zeke held up a hand, and his voice hardened. “You are all your mother has in this world. She’s got no one else. You are everything to her. And while I don’t exactly agree with how you two have chosen to maintain said relationship, I can’t say that the alternative has been much better. She deserves more from you.”
Thomas opened his mouth again, but Zeke wasn’t about to let him get a word in edgewise. “I’ve got at least thirty years on you, boy. Listen when I tell you that there is no reason to keep secrets from your mother like you’ve been doing. She deserves to know what’s going on in your life and how it will affect not only you but her as well. And I’m not saying that telling her should change the decisions you’re making, but perhaps you should be asking yourself why you didn’t want to tell her in the first place.”
“What don’t you understand about the fact that I’m an adult and I get to decide what I’m going to tell my mother and what I don’t?”
Zeke let out a dry chuckle as something dawned on him. “You didn’t tell her, did you?”
Thomas folded his arms. “No, I didn’t.”
“And why not?”
“Because what good would it do? She doesn’t need to know about a relationship I’ve started with someone when knowing would only hurt her.”
“And why would it hurt her?”
“Because if it works out, then her moving out to Copper Creek was for nothing. She’d pick up and follow me again.” His tone had turned exasperated. He dropped his arms to his sides and shook his head. “I love it here, and I can tell she loves it here too. But if I move, I know she’s going to follow me and end up missing this place more than she will ever admit.” Thomas peered up at Zeke and then glanced away. “And if it didn’t work out and I ended up finding my way somewhere else, then she would just keep with the status quo. I have to figure out my life now. It’s not that I don’t want her to be a part of it. I just want her to be okay with wherever I end up. And I want her to be happy wherever she wants to be, even if that isn’t in the same place as me.”
Zeke stiffened. This was a side of things he hadn’t considered. Thomas was trying to protect his mother in a similar way as Zeke had been. They were practically one and the same.
He bit back a smile. Agatha would hate this even more if she knew about it. But it wasn’t his problem anymore. And perhaps it never was. Agatha was her own person, and she deserved to make her own decisions. “If your mother follows you from city to city, then that’s her choice, and it’s because she loves you. She’s as much an adult as you are, and she can upend her life whenever she wants. But maybe you could let her know some of these things, then you wouldn’t feel bad about it if she did decide to follow you.”
Zeke waited for Thomas to argue—to make this all about him. But he didn’t.
“And if you think that you’re a disappointment for chasing your dreams, you couldn’t be more wrong. You’re her son. You’re going to make mistakes, but as long as you end up happy, that’s all she’s going to want for you.” The irony of Zeke’s statement wasn’t lost on him. He’d been on the other side of things. He’d been controlling and hard to live with. He’d set several rules for his daughters that didn’t give them opportunities to grow. And how had that worked out for him?
On more than one occasion, his daughters had kept certain truths from him. He’d had to scramble to make things right. And now he didn’t feel comfortable in his own home.
He shifted in his saddle, disliking how quiet Thomas had become, but for reasons he was only beginning to scratch the surface of. Thomas was no different than Zeke. He was just better at hiding it. “Believe me when I tell you that holding anything back from her is only going to make things worse. She deserves honesty. That woman raised you on her own. Don’t you think, at the very least, she deserves to be let in on what’s happening in your life?”
